Erik Satie is known for his melancholic, serene piano music, but the French composer also had a subtle sense of humor and an eccentric outlook on life. All these aspects are part of the new album by jazz pianist Philipp Rüttgers. He studied Satie’s complete oeuvre, accumulating fragments and motifs, and reshaped them. The abstract, enigmatic qualities of Satie remain present, but the music is unmistakably contemporary jazz, transparent and expressive.

Philipp’s research led from the classic Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes to lesser known works such as Les Fils des étoiles and Uspud. Satie’s preference for restraint and reduction has clearly informed Philipp’s playing: more expression with fewer notes when the music demands it, and layered complexity when the music unfolds. In that dynamic space, the interaction with drummer Sun-Mi Hong and bassist Omer Govreen acquires remarkable depth. The album title Re: Satie, Picturing the Invisible points to this as well: it is about what happens between the notes, in the space between the motifs and in the silences.

Philipp Rüttgers piano, Omer Govreen double bass, Sun-Mi Hong drums